Shirking air traffic controllers. If you want to make flying riskier, just let air traffic controllers use deteriorating performance, as measured by number of breaches of minimum separation guidelines, serve as indicator of stress sufficient for triggering paid stress leave.

Coase and dorm-room noises. U Auckland's student dorms considered banning loud sex late at night. A 'fence-out-the-noise' solution is plausibly better. And what if some neighbours actually got utility from the noise?

A modest proposal for internet tax parity. Sure, there are some distortions caused by that low-value imports are GST-free. But if we really want a level playing field, it isn't enough simply to put GST on all imports. I have a plan....

Hunt it to save it. Tweeting and shaming rich folks who pay exorbitant fees for safari hunts can do harm to conservation.

Currency risk: Why do we make international students bear the risk of fluctuating exchange rates?

Tax all the things. Sure, it's a bit distortionary that firms don't pay Fringe-Benefit tax on parking spaces. But don't we need to consider all the distortions? Shouldn't there be tax credits when an employer compensates you with pay for bearing a disamenity?

Trusting secret data: Dunedin edition. The Dunedin longitudinal survey has the country's best longitudinal data set all hidden away due to privacy considerations. But it would be simple to make it open access, if they wanted to. Simply run a GSS-style front end while keeping each individual's data confidential at the back.

The price of wool and economic growth. Remember the big Reinhart-Rogoff controversy? Much of it hinged on a single cell in an Excel table. Here's the story of that cell, and the data wonks who understood how the New Zealand waterside lockout mattered.

Health, fiscal externalities, and the nanny state.

Tax maximisation, smoking, and the Stalin Gap. In which I explain what happens when we start considering it an externality on the State and other taxpayers that you've not earned what you could have earned had you chosen less leisure. How else can we interpret the "lost productivity" costs of smoking?

The Social Costs of Healthy. In which we discuss whether we even have the sign right in all these discussions of the fiscal burden of lifestyle choices.

Coroner recommends. New Zealand would be rather different if government implemented all of the daffy coroner recommendations.

Social costs and HPV. When we start taking fiscal externalities as having policy consequence, well, we might need to start taxing oral sex. And that's just the start.

You have got to be freaking kidding me. Mandatory helmets for scooters? How the hell did any of us survive childhood before the nannies came to protect us? A few anecdotes of the things we survived, back in the day....

Driving while.... Lots of things impose risk on other drivers that's comparable to the risk that comes with driving in the .05-.08 range. Should we ban driving at 4 am?

Keeping it 18. There was no particular increase in bad stuff after New Zealand reduced the alcohol purchase age to 18. Worse, typical RDD methods used in the US to estimate the bad stuff that could happen were they to reduce their drinking age to 18 more likely identify a birthday effect than anything likely to persist long after the birthday.

Boffin fun. Suppose that you're the official in the Minister of Culture's office who gets the letter from some European heavy metal website asking how heavy metal music is supported in New Zealand. And suppose further that you have some understanding of the difference between Nightwish and Dimmu Borgir. And that you have a sense of humour.

Netflix and fixed costs. If Netflix wanted to run officially in New Zealand, the transactions costs for acquiring the bundle of rights would be very high. It would also need to make sure it had the appropriate NZ rating on each film. It makes more sense for them to not open here. Meanwhile, Kiwis subscribe while using VPNs that make us look like Americans.

And, finally, a few other posts that got a lot of +1s but aren't otherwise here indexed:

McDonald's vs McWorld. What happens when the only ethnic cuisine you can't get anywhere in the world is the country-specific McDonald's offerings?

Obesity and mortality revisited. Yes, the morbidly obese die earlier. But those who are merely overweight live longer. So why do we keep hearing obesity numbers that combine the obese with the overweight? To fuel the perception of an obesity crisis demanding action and policies and regulations and, perhaps, sweet sweet research grants for the public health squad.